Re: looks nice, but not too different...

I think the C6 is pretty sharp. I don't like the bulbous designs so the C7 fails me on that point. The E7 also looks nice.

As for S60...I personally like it. I've had my 5800 for over a year now and have come to love S60. It may be plain and minimalistic at times (though the new FW helped by bringing some eye candy) but it just works, and on weak hardware at that. Maybe the learning curve is steep, but I find S60 pretty easy to navigate. With the promised changes for S^3 (one tap everywhere, widgets, etc.) I think it'll really rejuvenate the OS, along with easier SDKs and just the QT framework which should spur on apps.

So in conclusion, I agree with you hepresearch that there will be a lot of disappointed people who just pass over Symbian, not realizing that it does just about everything any other phone does (while looking terrific compared to old Symbian.) Also, the non-removable battery is a terrible idea. I'd like to know who approved that design.